Dan Bilzerian responds after redacted photo of himself with Post Malone shows up in Epstein files

Many well-known figures have unexpectedly popped up in connection to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in the week since millions of files relating to the dead financier were released by the Department of Justice.

But while many have been shocked but perhaps unsurprised to see the extent of Epstein's continued correspondence with people like Elon Musk and Larry Summers after his conviction, some of the names popping up in the files are real head scratchers.

Some, like Love Actually star Emma Thompson, are named because their personal beliefs oppose the right-leaning pro-Israel views apparent in Epstein's emails. Yet for influencer Dan Bilzerian and artist Post Malone, their inclusion is a bit more mystifying.

One of the 180,000 images released last Friday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed the professional poker player and the Sunflower singer relaxing together, alongside two people whose identities had been redacted with black boxes.

Dan Bilzerian (Getty Images)

But while many of the black box redactions contained in the files are obscuring the identities of Epstein's victims, bizarrely, this image was taken directly from Bilzerian's Instagram account.

Neither of these women are purported to be victims of sex trafficking, unlike the apparent 100s of women and girls pictured or referred to in the 3 million documents released by the DOJ.

Seeing his inclusion in the infamous files, the 45-year-old wealth playboy has pushed back, telling confused people on X: "I posted this in 2018. Every pic I posted on my IG is in the files [with] girls faces blacked out."

Having created his public profile by posing in luxury environs with a number of scantily clad adult models, Bilzerian also claimed that the dead pedophile must have been 'a fan' of his, alongside his 30 million other followers.

Bilzerian said that Epstein must have been 'a fan' (Department of Justice)

Another message to the infamous pedophile was dropped in the files relating to the playboy, with an anonymous sender saying: "Dan Bilzerian is the only one flexing on you."

Bilzerian's inclusion in the explosive document release is an example of the wide net that government officials used to locate information connected to the dead sex trafficker, with images saved by Epstein unrelated to his criminality also appearing.

The poker player has slammed President Trump in light of the Epstein files, even telling his followers that 'Trump is such a piece of sh*t for gaslighting us to protect pedophiles.' Later, he went further and argued: "We need public executions for everyone implicated in the Epstein child sex trafficking and torture rituals."

But unlike Bilzerian and Malone, a number of other well-known figures were revealed in the files to have continued their relationships with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting child prostitution.

That includes billionaire Bill Gates, respected philosopher Noam Chomsky, and the arch conservative Trump fixer Steve Bannon.